Sewer Modernization Project Started Design Work Authorized For $8-million Plan

March 18, 1986|by JOE NIXON, The Morning Call

The Easton Area Joint Sewer Authority last night took a big first step toward replacing failing sewage treatment equipment at the Easton treatment plant, authorizing its consulting engineers to begin preliminary design work on a process known as orbal aeration.

The orbal process, if carried to completion, would replace the three dozen rotating biological contactors (RBCs), about two-thirds of which are not working. The orbal system has been touted by consulting engineer PSC Environmental Services as being less prone to mechanical breakdown.

Constructing the initial orbal unit, combined with other associated capital projects, could run about $8 million and require a substantial increase in contributions from the five EAJSA member municipalities. The EAJSA is made up of Easton and the boroughs of Wilson and West Easton, as well as Forks and Palmer townships.

The preliminary design work will concentrate on one orbal unit that would have a treatment capacity of 5 to 7 million gallons per day at current waste strength. A second unit could be put on plant property along Route 611, despite the taking of residual plant land for the Interstate 78 project. The capacity of the initial unit could be increased, according to PSC, through an aggressive industrial waste monitoring program and the deletion of sludge in the sewer system from the Easton water treatment plant.

PSC's Walter Barcz Jr. told the authority last night the preliminary study would probably cost about $65,000 and take roughly five months to complete. Barcz said the PSC study will examine other plant equipment as it affects the proposed orbal project. In its report, Barcz said PSC would examine plant facilities such as primary and secondary clarifiers, sludge dewatering facilities "and all other parts of the plant that would be affected by the replacement of RBCs with the orbal process."

Lewis E. Ritter of PSC said replacing the failing RBCs with more of the same equipment is inadvisable because RBCs are not as efficient at removing waste components like ammonia nitrogen from the effluent.

Cost estimates would be refined from the treatment process alternatives study that was completed in December. A timetable for following through with the project would also be developed.

The authority last night was able to seat enough members to vote on the measure. Several previous sessions have not produced the required number of votes to consider the matter. Authority members John Cappellano and Michael Ciavarella voted against the authorization for preliminary design. Cappellano has long been an opponent of the orbal system and has maintained RBCs could do the job if industrial contributors pretreated their waste.

Cappellano said last night that regardless of what process goes into the plant, the industrial waste program has to be enforced. The Easton's plant's influent is about 40 percent industrial waste.

Authority Consultant Thomas Goldsmith said the preliminary design work will result in a process design which will then have to be reviewed by the state Department of Environmental Resources.

A draft consent order and agreement with DER has set a date of July 1, 1988 for the plant to come into compliance with parameters listed on its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. That date is not negotiable, Goldsmith has said.

The authority last night authorized the City of Easton, operators of the sewage treatment plant, to initiate chemical precipitation on an emergency basis to help the plant remove some of the solids from the wastewater. The project will be done initially on an emergency basis, with an eye toward establishing a permanent setup. Ritter said last night the process could help the plant meet some milestone dates in the consent order leading up to the final compliance date in 1988.